Success - New Multisite Install on Dedicated server using ServerPilot, Nginx and Apache

Unterstützung Installation
1

Here’s what I did to install a successful installation of Discourse for multiple instances on a dedicated server that uses Nginx and Apache.

I decided to create a new topic since my installation seems to be a little unique from what I have seen others having to go through. I am very new to Nginx webservers and thought this might help others who may be struggling to connect the dots. I’m also at a beginner level when it comes to using the terminal to access my server, I still have to look up commands for most of the stuff I want to do, but I am finding it so much faster and powerful vs FTP. I still use FTP for a visual representation to locate files and text editing (I don’t like vi or nano editing in the terminal) I use Coda (on a Mac) as my text editor so I have direct access to the server. Which means I can live edit my files just as one would do in the terminal.

I’m using ServerPilot as the control panel to manage my websites on an Ubuntu 14.04 installation. ServerPilot uses Nginx as a reverse proxy in front of the Apache webserver. At first I was a bit confused with this, and basically what they have done is use Nginx as the hub where website requests come into the Nginx server and get routed to Apache to be executed and then back through Nginx to be displayed. This proved to cause some trouble with my installation as I had to figure out where all the config files and such were located.

I started with this tutorial for installing the first instance of Discourse as a dev version …

https://github.com/discourse/discourse/blob/master/docs/INSTALL-cloud.md

Pay special attention to the TCP/IP ports as that was the first place I stumbled, and I see a lot of other posts in the forums from other people who have done the same. If you leave them at the default “80:80” you may get an error stating that port is already in use.

Change the first half of the ports to a port that is not being used, I used 85

This got me through the installation with no errors, but when I went to the url I setup for the forum nothing was showing up. I could connect to the forum using the IP with the port number. Since the forum doesn’t need Apache, I found the conf file that was directing the site to the Apache server with a local IP. I changed this IP to the forum IP with port number.

The path to that section (if you’re also using ServerPilot)

/etc/nginx-sp/vhosts.d/main.conf
(ServerPilot recommends that you change the name of the main.conf file so it is not overwritten on updates)

Now I had a working instance of Discourse, and here’s what I did to set up the multiple instances.

I started with this tutorial, but I was having trouble understanding how the structure was supposed to be setup

If you scroll down to this section …

https://meta.discourse.org/t/multisite-configuration-with-docker/14084/18

This is where I based my installation from, however I did not use the hook settings in the original post. Instead, I duplicated the app.yml file for each site I was creating (only two sites) and renamed them for site specific use. I’ll use the example - site1 and site2.

So in the /var/discourse/containers the files there are as such …

app.yml
site1.yml
site2.yml

(these are your separate containers, which was a term that I didn’t understand at first)

For each file you need to make sure to change the following areas to be specific to your instance …

## which TCP/IP ports should this container expose?
expose:
  - "127.0.0.1:4000:80"   # fwd host port 80   to container port 80 (http)
  - "2222:22" # fwd host port 2222 to container port 22 (ssh)

Notice I changed the first port on both, otherwise you will get port conflict errors.

  ## TODO: List of comma delimited emails that will be made admin and developer
  ## on initial signup example 'user1@example.com,user2@example.com'
  DISCOURSE_DEVELOPER_EMAILS: 'changeme@site1.com'

change the developer email to the email you will use for the admin account

In the mailserver section that follows, be sure to change any settings that are specific to this site such as the username and password. I ended up using Mandrill so the smtp and port numbers were the same for all instances, but I created two accounts. (one for each website)

This next section to edit is key to you getting a separate database for each site. Be sure to change the ‘yoursite’ to something unique to each site.

## These containers are stateless, all data is stored in /shared
volumes:
  - volume:
      host: /var/discourse/shared/yoursite
      guest: /shared
  - volume:
      host: /var/discourse/shared/yoursite/log/var-log
      guest: /var/log

The next thing to do is make sure you have the Nginx proxy URL (the one that is pointing to Apache) changed to match the port you configured in the TCP/IP section. So using the port I used as an example your file should look like this and as I mentioned above, ServerPilot recommends changing the name of the file if you MUST edit (that’s why they give the do not edit warning)

###############################################################################
# DO NOT EDIT THIS FILE.
#
# Your changes to this file will be overwritten by ServerPilot.
#
# For information on how to customize nginx settings, see
# https://serverpilot.io/community/articles/customize-nginx-settings.html
###############################################################################

# Send all requests to apache.
location / {
    proxy_pass      http://localhost:4000;

Be sure to restart Nginx if you make changes to the .conf file (I forgot to do this) and with ServerPilot the restart command is a little different than I had seen elsewhere, this is what did it for me …

service nginx-sp restart

Then start bootstrapping your containers. (do this for each site your configured) Enter these commands in the terminal

./launcher bootstrap site1
(after that is done)
./launcher start site1

You should now be able to load the URL you have for the forum and see your Discourse forum.

I ended up with one of the sites not recognizing the Admin account when I registered with the developer email, and I found I had a stray character at the end of the URL that caused the email to be different. I then went into the /var/discourse/shared/ directory and deleted the folder matching that site. Then I used ./launcher destroy site2 command followed by ./launcher bootstrap site2 and then ./launcher start site2 I’m not sure a rebuild would work since you want the database to be recreated.

I know I probably over-simplified this is some areas, but from what I have seen in other topics/threads, some people need instructions that are overly simplified :wink:

Please let me know if I left any holes, or there is any need for clarification as long as you understand I can only speak for what worked for me since I barely understand this myself HA!!!

One more thing … does any one see any issue with duplicating the app.yml file to be used in this way? It seems this would work perfectly for updating as well.

Best regards … Pops

2

Actually, ports <1024 are considered “privileged”, using them without assignment is… not technically wrong, but ugly. Also, you should bind Discourse to the local interface:

expose:
  - "127.0.0.1:4000:80"

Change your nginx config accordingly to proxy_pass http://localhost:4000;

Overall, nice write-up, but do turn your YAML and other config file snippets into proper fenced code blocks (``` on a line by itself before and after the code block). Especially for YAML, indentation is really important and it gets lost in simple quote blocks. :wink:

3

That makes complete sense, I made the changes suggested to my server and they work perfectly. I also changed them in the above instructions as well as used the code markdown instead of the quote markdown (thanks for pointing that out)

… Pops

4

@elberet hmmm, something isn’t quite right when changing the ports on the production sites

Changing the ports as you suggested on the app.yml file worked great, but after changing the two additional container files with the appropriate changes I get a 502 bad gateway error.

I made the changes to the exposed port, as well as the proxy_pass, I then rebuilt the the instance using ./launcher rebuild as well as restarted the Nginx server.

Any idea what’s wrong?

… Pops

EDIT: very weird … I was issuing the restart command for Nginx, but when I stopped it, and then started instead of “restart” everything is working fine

5

You can also stop exporting ports entirely by using web.socketed.template.yml:

6

I saw that post, but had a difficult time understanding how to implement it in the way my server is set up since Nginx is already installed and running in front of Apache.

It had to do with the last step, the path you referenced for sites-enabled an sites-available doesn’t exist and if I just needed to create them, I didn’t know how the files as a whole were to be set. (just a lack of knowledge on my part)

7

@PopsRocker Hi Pops!

Like you I’m trying to set up Discourse on DigitalOcean with ServerPilot, already running another website in a ServerPilot app (app named ‘test’). I only need a single Discourse site, so my setup will be simpler than yours.

Along with app#1 (test) hosting a website, I’ve got a 2nd ServerPilot app (named ‘discourse’) set up for purposes of pointing to the Discourse install. This gives me the /etc/nginx-sp/vhosts.d/discourse.conf and /etc/nginx-sp/vhosts.d/discourse.d/main.conf files.

So my question: what modifications did you make to your .conf files to get it to forward requests to discourse? I’ve got Discourse running and can access it from discourse.example.com:8888. What is it I need to do in the nginx conf files so that I can see Discourse at discourse.example.com, without appending the port number?

Thx

8

Sorry, replied too soon and then found my answer above:

in app.yml:

expose:
  - "127.0.0.1:8888:80" # fwd host port 80 to container port 8888 (http)
  - "2222:22" # fwd host port 22 to container port 2222 (ssh)

in /etc/nginx-sp/vhosts.d/discourse.d/main.conf (renamed to main.custom.conf as suggested):

location / {
    proxy_pass $backend_protocol://$backend_host:8888;
}
9

I’m still a little confused with this Serverpilot / Discourse setup. When you created your “discourse” app in Serverpilot, what did you put in the apps/discourse/public/ directory? I have my current discourse installation in the /var/discourse directory but am not sure how Serverpilot is suppose to recognize that?

10

You don’t actually have to put anything in the apps/discourse/public/ directory. Instead, you want requests to that Serverpilot app forwarded to your Discourse install living in /var/.

This is accomplished via the /var/discourse/containers/app.yml and /etc/nginx-sp/vhosts.d/discourse.d/main.custom.conf modifications referenced in my previous post.

11

Thanks for your help! I was able to get it up and running.

12

I’m using ServerPilot too. Glad I found this article. I will let you know, how it’s worked up for me.
Thank you.

14

Thanks for the info on this. I know it has been a while, does anyone happen to know what kind of increase in resources on the system end up being consumed when you have a second one?

15

Maybe it’s because this post is from 2015 … but now I can not find the nginx-sp directory in my installation (I did it with the docker automatically).

I have all the second.yml completely changed, but I don’t know where it’s the nginx file to do the proxy thing.

18

(Beitrag vom Autor zurückgezogen und wird automatisch in 24 Stunden gelöscht, sofern er nicht gemeldet wird)

20

Dieser Pfad sollte für die erste Seite doch /standalone/ enthalten, oder?

21

Ich frage mich, ob da nicht eine Verwechslung zwischen Multisite und WP+Discourse in einem Dual-Container-Setup vorliegt? :face_with_raised_eyebrow:

24

Wir betreiben problemlos mehrere Discourse-Apps (auf demselben Server) mit einem Container für die Daten und einem Container für die App für jede ausgeführte „Domain-Instanz".

Zusätzlich führen wir für jede „Domain-Instanz" zwei Anwendungscontainer aus. Das bedeutet, dass beim Neuaufbau eines Containers keine Ausfallzeit entsteht.

Warum?

Weil, während „Container A" läuft, wir „Container B" neu aufbauen; und nachdem „Container B" neu aufgebaut wurde, warten wir etwa eine Minute, konfigurieren den Reverse Proxy neu, sodass er auf den Unix-Socket von „Container B" weiterleitet, und führen (im Fall von Apache2) service apache2 restart aus.

Das bedeutet, dass beim Wechsel der Container praktisch keine Ausfallzeit entsteht (vielleicht nur wenige Millisekunden).

Ich folge diesem Thread mit Staunen darüber, wie schwierig (oder kompliziert) viele Leute etwas machen, was im Grunde sehr einfach ist.

Discourse in der Produktion läuft in einem Docker-Container; und das gute Discourse-Team hat die Kernvorlagen bereitgestellt, um Discourse entweder über einen TCP/IP-Socket oder einen UNIX-Domain-Socket (pro Anwendungsinstanz) freizugeben. Zudem hat das gute Meta-Team die Kernvorlage bereitgestellt, um den Datencontainer (PostgreSQL) separat vom Anwendungscontainer (Rails, JS) auszuführen.

Das exakt gleiche Konzept gilt für jede Node.js-Anwendung, die in einem Container läuft. Diese Konfigurationen (Reverse Proxies zu Containern) sind grundlegende Docker-Aufgaben, die auf alle Webanwendungen zutreffen, die in einem Container laufen. Discourse ist lediglich eine davon und, wie wir alle wissen, eine der besten :slight_smile:

Manchmal denke ich, dass das hervorragende Team bei Meta Discourse das Starten ihres Containers mit ihren gut durchdachten Wrapper-Skripten so einfach macht, dass Nutzer nicht verstehen, dass die zugrunde liegenden Grundlagen des Betreibens einer webbasierten Docker-Anwendung hinter einem Reverse Proxy wirklich ziemlich einfach sind.

Wir können so viele „Discourse-Anwendungen" wie gewünscht als virtuelle Hosts betreiben, nicht anders als ein Webmaster, der 20 „alte LAMP-Web-Apps" auf demselben Server betreibt. Der einzige Unterschied besteht darin, dass anstelle eines virtuellen Hosts zu einem Verzeichnis mit PHP-Dateien ein virtueller Host zu (in unserem Fall) einem UNIX-Domain-Socket führt. Docker macht dies durch das Teilen von Kernbibliotheken und Overlays zwischen Containern sehr effizient!

Zusätzlich ist es, da die Netzwerkkommunikation zwischen Containern in Docker integriert ist, sehr einfach, Discourse (als Anwendungscontainer) so einzurichten, dass es mit einem PostgreSQL-Datencontainer funktioniert; der von dem guten Meta-Team als Beispielvorlage für alle Nutzer bereitgestellt wird, die Discourse auf „interessantere" Weise (Konfigurationen) betreiben möchten.

Mein Rat, so viel er wert ist, lautet: Verstehen Sie, dass Discourse einfach eine Web-App ist, die in einem Container hinter einem Reverse Proxy läuft, wie jede andere Web-App auch. Wir betreiben unser privates Docker-Registrier (tatsächlich mehr als eines) auf die gleiche Weise; eine Docker-Anwendung hinter demselben Reverse Proxy auf Port 5000 (dem Standardport für Docker-Registrier).

Discourse bietet in seiner Weisheit, das Leben für Nutzer einfach zu machen (und Discourse auch für Nicht-Sysadmin-Gurus zugänglich zu machen), die Möglichkeit, die Webanwendungen direkt (ohne Reverse Proxy) in ihrer OOTB-Konfiguration freizugeben. Zudem ist die Einrichtung eines Reverse Proxies außerhalb des Docker-Containers für alle diese Docker-Webanwendungen gleich. Das Meta-Team stellt auch diese Vorlagen bereit (so großartige Unterstützung, wenn man darüber nachdenkt!).

Zum Abschluss: Es ist sehr einfach, eine, zwanzig oder mehr Docker-Apps hinter einem Reverse Proxy zu betreiben. Es sind einfach Container (und alle könnten verschiedene Discourse-Foren sein), und die Wahl, wie die Container freigegeben werden, liegt beim Nutzer (dem Sysadmin), ebenso wie die Entscheidungen zur Einrichtung persistenter Speicherlaufwerke, einschließlich Datenbanken.

Ich denke, das ist so einfach, und das Meta-Team hat es für alle so einfach gemacht; aber einer der Nebeneffekte, es so einfach zu machen, ist, dass die Leute vergessen haben (oder nicht gelernt haben), wie einfach und elegant die Docker-Konfiguration (hinter einem Reverse Proxy) tatsächlich ist (unabhängig von Discourse).

Hoffentlich hilft das auf irgendeine kleine Weise.

Alles Gute!"}

26

Es ist wirklich einfach…

Jede Anwendung verfügt über ein eigenes freigegebenes Volume, und in diesem Volume läuft der Unix-Domain-Socket (und dort befinden sich auch alle anderen persistenten Daten wie Uploads usw.).

Sie müssen nicht direkt mit docker-compose arbeiten, spezielle pup-Direktiven verwenden oder irgendetwas ändern (stellen Sie lediglich die grundlegenden YAML-Dateien für die Container korrekt ein und starten Sie den Launcher).

Wenn eine Ihrer Discourse-Sites/Apps „farmer_forums

27

Vielleicht sollten wir dieses Setup anders nennen als Multisite (was in meinen Augen den Datencontainer teilt, siehe das von Sam im letzten Jahr geschlossene Howto-Thema)
Parallele Seite? :crazy_face: Ich weiß nicht…
Wenn ich mich nicht irre, kannst du seit du eine .yml-Datei pro Daten/Web-Containerpaar hast, für jede Domain verschiedene Plugin-Sets und SMTP angeben?